Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s state oil fund SOFAZ has managed to enter the top five of the most transparent sovereign wealth funds of the world.

The Fund ranked the fourth among 60 sovereign wealth funds with overall score of 92 out of 100 in the fourth edition of Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency and Accountability scoreboard published in October 2016.

The rating, prepared by Peterson Institute for International Economics put Norway Government Pension Fund to the top of the list followed by New Zealand Superannuation Fund (2nd place), Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund, United States (3rd place), SOFAZ (4th place) and Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, Canada (5th place).

Peterson Institute for International Economics was established in 1981 and is a private, nonprofit research institution specialized in the study of international economic policy.

SOFAZ, which is engaged in accumulation and management of oil and gas revenues of the country, was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.

Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.

The transfers of the Fund to the state budget are forecasted to hit 7.61 billion manat ($ 4.64 billion) in 2016, while the forecasted index for 2017 stands at 6.1 billion manat ($3.7 billion). The assets of the Fund currently amount to some $33.7 billion, with some 80 percent of the volume falling to a share of bonds and short-term financial instruments.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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